Describe a time you had to make a tough decision (e.g. budget cuts, organizational restructuring, market withdrawal, etc.). What did you do and what was the result?

One of the most memorable tough situations I experienced was while I was managing a global eCommerce company our small parcel shipments like many, were held up at Chinese customs when the government suddenly changed its policy.  It was one of the best-performed Singles' Day sales and anxious customers left thousands of messages within hours on Weibo ad jammed our customer service platform. The dominos effect in pressing for updates and refunds was so overwhelming nasty comments and badmouthing our credibility started to hit us as well.   Racing with time, I decided to reach out to every single customer explaining the situation, reiterating our commitment to serve and resolve, and giving them the option to refund other than waiting.  I was tearing up inside as our China business to 1 billion Chinese netizens could be on the verge of collapsing.  Our immediate crisis management let us be greeted with calmness the next day, messages on social media were greatly reduced even our phones were still ringing off the hook.  We eventually fulfill our commitments, lost only very few customers, gained many loyal customers.  The lesson I learned was when you let your customers be your partner while walking through the challenges, they may surprise you and reward you with more loyalty.